Sporting Lagos coach Jeffrey Buter has been invited to face a Nigeria Premier Football League panel this week.

The invitation comes following his comments on the officiating of the Lagos Derby match involving Sporting Lagos and Ikorodu City in a rescheduled fixture played at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena on Sepetember 30th.
The derby ended in a stalemate, but coach Buter expressed his disappointment at the officiating of the match.

Coach Jeffrey Buter, in his post-match reaction, accused the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) and the league organisers of being complicit.

He argued that the referees are bringing the league into disrepute and the league cannot grow if the league body doesn’t take appropriate action.

“I will not say anything about the referee. The only thing I will say is the NRA and the Euromatch league board, they know what they are doing. And if they think they can frustrate us into getting us not to play, it’s a lie we will keep playing.”

“They say I am bringing the league into disrepute, the referees are bringing the league to disrepute and not me. If they (league organisers) are not going to fix it, the league is not going anywhere.”

However, coach Buter said his team will keep playing and fighting irrespective of the unfavorable conditions. He went on to reveal that his team has been victims of poor officiating in consecutive matches and the referees involved have not been warned neither sanctioned. He also confirmed that the league body had earlier issued him a warning.

“But for us, we will keep fighting; we will keep playing against anything that they throw at us. This is not the first time; this is back-to-back games. They issued me a warning, and nothing has been issued to the referees.”

“We cannot continue like this; everyone in the stadium saw it (the officiating), you people (media) saw it, but we will keep showing up for the games, and we will keep fighting.”

Guardian Nigeria spoke with the media officer of Sporting Lagos, who confirmed the development. According to him, a date has not been fixed for the hearing, but he assured it will take place this week.

Meanwhile, Sporting Lagos extended their unbeaten run to four games after earning a point away at Kano Pillars on Saturday. Coach Buter had earlier expressed confidence in getting maximum points against the hosts in a chat with Guardian Nigeria on Friday but his team managed to leave KAano with  point.

Valentine Ogwu scored the opener in added time of the first half before Abdullahi Musa’s equalizer four minutes into the second half. The result leaves both sides without a win in their last three matches, respectively. Ayomide John